Thursday, June 23, 2011

Smashed her young husband's skull with a claw hammer and table leg in this little town the other night –

Bound his dead body with cords –

Nonchalantly pulled her hat over her sleek bobbed head –

Drove 35 miles to a friend’s home and a bridge party, where she won all the prizes and sang jazz songs –

Slept all night like a child –

Ate a hearty breakfast –

Spent a day Christmas shopping,. buying some gifts for the murdered husband in the love nest –

And only asked for more cigarets which she calmly puffed when the sheriff came to get her.

~ "The Modern Murderess." ~

And there, in the person of Mrs. Velma Van Woert West, you have a perfect picture of what officials are calling “the modern woman murderess.” The poise and coolness of a modern woman have been much discussed of late. But Velma West, known as "A Night Club Girl in a Curfew Town," is the first woman known to execute a murder with something of the same attitude with which other modern young women handle home and job, or do other feats unknown to the more hysterical women of olden days.

The murder of young “Ed” West, 26, has startled the country.

The murdered man belonged to a nationally known family. His father, T. B. West, is a man whose nurseries are known the country over.West shrubs and trees and seeds grow in yards of “love nests” from Maine to California, “love nests” very much like the trim little bungalow to which Ed West took his bride less than two years ago.

Perry thrilled when it heard that popular Ed West had brought a city girl home for his bride. Perry wanted to meet the bride.

A reception was given by the young bridegroom's parents. All Perry was invited to the big West home. All Perry came. Just what happened is not clear. But the faintly of the murdered man admit that “Ed’s wife” was never “taken up" by Perry.” VelmaWest was “different.” She smoked cigarets, and plenty of them, in public. Maybe other Perry girls smoked, too, but behind locked doors with only bosom friends or so for beholder.

Velma West was indifferent to all the things that Perry held dear – old families, old books, old music, old friends.

Velma laughed at the old and talked much about the “kicks and thrills” of life.

She was invited out a little at first by “Ed’s friends.” But Velma was bored by the parties. Besides, the invitations seemed to die a natural death.

So the young Wests began finding their good times in Cleveland, about 25 miles away.

~ Couldn't Agree ~

Three or four times a week the shiny green roadster took the road to the big city. The dead man’s relatives say that Ed didn’t always want to go. He worked in his father’s nursery all day long, managing gardeners, transplanting, digging, working with the famous West shrubs. He was tired nights.

Let’s stay home tonight, Velma,” he is quoted as saying. “Let’s just stay here alone and you play and sing while I sit in the big chair with the paper. It’ll be cozy.”

But Velma wouldn't stay. The city was in her blood—part of her. Folks went to bed at 10 o'clock in Perry.

It was a party that made Ed West die. Velma told him they were going to a bridge party at a girl friend’s home on the farthermost part of Cleveland that night. They were driving home from another nearby city when she told him.

“But I'm tired,” West told her “Let’s stay home tonight.”

After supper, Velma began dressing for the party, urging Ed to hurry up.

“But I’m not coming,” he said and she knew that he meant it. They quarreled. Ed got mad. Said things about her friend. “You hardly know her—she’s not your kind—won’t have you running with that crowd—Why won’t you play bridge with some of the nice Perry girls? Might join the Young People's Set.” Etc., etc.

Almost 24 hours later Velma West told the sheriff and county prosecutor what happened. They had not even questioned or accused her. Hardly suspected.

"Why did you leave the back door open when you went away?” was the calm question that brought a complete written confession from the flapper bride.

“All right, I’ll tell you everything.”

She did.

Ed finally struck her as they quarreled, she said. She “saw red.” Went down to the cellar, got a hammer, came back, hit him over the head with the hammer, and when he went down finished the job with a library table leg which was “just lying around” until the table could be repaired.

~ After the Murder ~

She bound him, threw a blanket over him, left the lights burning, went to Cleveland, and was “the life of the party” all right, talked and giggled with her gin friend until late in the night, slept well, ate a good breakfast, then went Christmas shopping with her mother. She bought a nice box of handkerchiefs for Ed and almost bought a scarf she thought he would like.

Officials were waiting for her at her mother’s home and took her to Painesville, the county seat. There she calmly told her story.

A plea of insanity and perhaps self-defense will be her move in court when the first degree murder trial opens in January. Meanwhile, this “modern woman murderess” smokes pack after pack of cigarets in her cell. She has not wept yet. Nor laughed She has only asked for more fags, and sometimes hummed snatches of modern jazz songs.

“The defendant Velma West, at this time
desiree to enter a plea of guilty,” Poulson said.

Trial Judge J. D. Barnes looked at Seth
Paulin, Lake-co prosecutor. Paulin stood up and announced that the state would
accept the plea, ending the trial of a day’s duration.

At the court’s request Velma West was brought
to the bench, and was asked if she agreed to the plea of guilty.

“Yes sir.”

The
voice was almost a whisper. The girl trembled as she spoke.

The
crowded courtroom leaned forward to hear her.

Then
Judge Barnes asked if she anything to say before sentence was imposed.

Velma
gulped three times. Her voice had failed her. Finally she replied. “I have
nothing to say.”

The
plea and sentence brought to an end one of the most sensational murder cases In
the history of Ohio. Edward West, scion of a prominent family of Perry, Ohio,
nursery man, was found murdered In the west bungalow Dec. 6. His head had been

battered
by a claw-hammer.

The
following day Mrs. West was arrested at the home of her mother in East
Cleveland and although she presented a perfect alibi, later confessed to
Painesville authorities that she had committed the crime.

It
was expected the Perry housewife would be taken to Marysville, Ohio, this
afternoon to begin serving her sentence.

Judge
Barnes then outlined the conferences that have been held between defense and
the prosecution since yesterday morning. He said the attorneys had properly
conferred with the trial Judge and Judge A. G. Reynolds who handled the case up
to the present time.

“Judge
Reynolds and myself,” he said, “accept full responsibility for the
second-degree murder plea.

“We
are convinced the defendant could not have been convicted of first degree murder.”

Then
Judge Barnes sentenced Velma West to life in the Marysville reformatory. The
Wests’ wedded life was not a happy one. Velma did not fit in with the small
life of Perry, where West had built for her a bungalow.

Her love for her
husband, the prosecution had
learned, was exceeded by her love for another—a woman.

The
state’s lawyers were ready to go before a jury and picture Velma as one
afflicted with a sex complex that made her put the love for one of her own sex
above that of her husband, homo and happiness.

Attorneys
for Velma did not think she would be convicted of more than second degree
murder, but they did not want to put her on trial and place on record the story
of alleged abnormal love gathered by Sheriff Ed Rasmussen.

That
was one reason why a compromise was sought. The proceedings today took just
eight minutes.

Again
the courtroom was crowded. Still pale and extremely nervous, Velma sat behind
the trio of attorneys. B. L. Van Woert, Cleveland salesman and father of the
girl, was among the spectators. Her mother was not present. No member of the
West family was in the courtroom but T. B. West, father of the slain man and
James West, a brother who discovered the body, waited in the prosecutors
office.

Velma
found it hard to answer the judge. As she faced the court her formerly
chalk-white neck showed marks of red. She had great difficulty in finding her
voice. She half choked, like a person about to either cry or laugh.

Then
the judge asked her if she had anything to say. She struggled for control for a
moment and answered:

“I
have nothing to say.”

Judge
Barnes, without hesitation, pronounced sentence. He said; “This does not come
to the court as a new proposition this morning.

This
proposition was submitted to me before court opened yesterday morning. Counsel
for the prosecution and defense spent the entire day going over the matter.
They very properly took the matter up with
this court for advice and sanction
as to what was proper to do.

Not only with this court but with Judge Reynolds. After giving the fullest consideration to all of the evidence and circumstances of this case, both Judge Reynolds and I came to the full and complete agreement that a verdict of guilty of first degree
murder was not Justified by this
evidence. But that admittance of
a plea of guilty of second degree murder was the proper thing to do.

This would save a great amount of money, the expenditure of a great deal of time and produce the only outcome which could be expected from a full jury trial.

“I don’t think this is the time for talking.
Your crime was a horrible and
unthinkable thing. This staid community
was stirred by It. It was terrible. The
mandate of the law must be
fulfilled. This is the first time I have ever had to sentence a woman on a like
charge.” Velma walked back to her chair.

Her father came and bent low over her. She
wept violently. Then as suddenly as
they started the tears stopped. She dried her eyes and smiled.

“I am so happy,” she said. She had escaped the
threatened story of the woman she is said to have loved more than her husband —
Miss Mabel Young, Cleveland. Miss Young had hoped to cure Velma by having her
associate with wholesome young women of her own age, she said.

But had the trial gone on, there was a
possibility that Miss Young would not testify. She could not be found today. Velma West went back to her cell in
Lake-co jail immediately. She expressed a wish to go to Marysville at once.

“I want to get out in the sunshine,” she said.

Her father hastened away to telephone to the
mother the news of the sentence.

Sheriff
Rasmussen went to work at once
preparing the necessary papers for Velma’s commitmentto Marysville.

The defense attorneys, however, made a
request that the taking of the girl to the reformatory be delayed so that she
may wind up some personal affairs.

They asked permission to take her to the
bungalow at Perry to reclaim her personal effects. She has not been there since
the night she fled to Cleveland after killing her husband. Rasmussen granted
the request, and the girl will not be taken to Marysville until tomorrow.

The
trial of the young woman, who
had rebelled against the small town
life of Perry, Ohio, after the active
social life of a popular debutante in Cleveland, opened yesterday.

There
were numerous conferences.

The
state offered to accept a plea
of guilty to a homicide charge. The defense offered to have the girl
plead guilty to second degree murder.

Then a continuance was taken until today.

Attorneys
for the state and the defense
had a long conference last night after which it was understood that the girl
would plead guilty to second
degree murder.

The
young woman was happy this
morning at the prospects of
escaping the tedious trial.

“I am
glad the anxiety is over,” she said. “Imprisonment is not pleasant to contemplate, but I am willing to
pay the penalty the law exacts. I am glad my friends and relatives will be
spared the anguish of a long and bitter trial.”

The
decision to end the trial abruptly through the second degree plea, it was
understood, was to spare the
family of the defendant and her slain husband from an unnecessary ordeal of
sensationalism which the state had promised to bring forth.

“Our
chief reason for wanting to
enter the guilty plea is that it will terminate all court action, chargesand
counter charges and all sensational and sordid revelations,”

Poulson
said. “If this case had gone to
a jury many relatively innocent people
might have been involved.”

[Charles E. Ahrens, “Velma West Gets Life For Murder –
‘Guilty’ Is Plea After Conference – State Accepted Plea On Second Degree Charge
and Perry, O., Woman Who Killed Husband With Hammer Is Eligible To Pardon in 10
Years,” The Star Journal (Sandusky, Oh.), Mar. 6, 1928, p. 1]

***

FULL
TEXT (Article 3 of 4): Marysville, Ohio
— Officials of Marysville women’s reformatory said today
they had established that Velma West, 33, hammer slayer of her husband who
escaped with three others, had the assistance of another other prisoner in
unlocking her cell early Monday.

Prison
officials reported to the state
welfare department that Mrs. Lenora Leach, 26, who had been sent to the
reformatory for smuggling, hacksaws to her former husband in the Gallipolis
jail, had aided the escape of Mrs. West after the frail blonde had written that
she wanted “one little adventure in this dull life of mine.”

Mrs. Leach
had denied seeing Mrs. West escape even though she slept on a cot in the
corridor just outside the latter’s cell. Her story was not believed and she was
placed in solitary confinement.

Another
prisoner was allowed to talk to Mrs. Leach in her solitary cell, and by
listening to their conversation, officials learned that she had unlocked Mrs.
West’s cell with a key which the hammer murderess had given her. The cell door
could be unlocked only from the outside. Mrs. West, it was established, then
unlocked the cell of a t least one other of the three who fled with her.

Ohio authorities ran down numerous tips today in their
search for the fugitives.

Two
girls who aroused suspicion were seen in Lorain at 3 a. m. A gasoline station
attendant at Russell’s Point reported seeing a son of a Marysville prisoner
with five women in his automobile, two of whom he thought might have been
fugitives.

Mrs.
Marguerite Reilley, reformatory superintendent, who had reformed Mrs. West from
a troublemaker into a model prisoner in three years and had called her the girl
who made good,” said that two other prisoners were under suspicion of aiding
the escape.

Mrs.
Reilley questioned Rachel Thomas, formerly of Mansfield, who is a good
wood-carver and who made two keys from nail files about a year ago, and Lenora
Leach, 26, formerly of Gallipolis, who slept in the corridor outside Mrs.
West’s cell.

Mrs.
Reilley revealed today that a Marysville man who had been a friend of Mary
Ellen Richards, one of the fugitives was sought for questioning. The
superintendent said the man had been missing for a week and his automobile, had
been standing in the street. Miss Richards worked m Marysville before her
conviction.

Mrs.
Reilley said, however, there was no indication that the man had contacted Miss
Richards recently.

All
prisoners were ordered today to wear uniforms. Prior to the escape, those
considered more trustworthy wore thin print ‘honor” dresses. Mrs. West escaped
in an “honor” dress.

“Maybe
I have been mistaken,” Mrs. Reilley said. “Maybe this place should be run like
any jail after all. It was a real
joy to see Velma develop from the kind of a creature she was when I came here
three and a half years ago. Her
failing me tears down the thing I have tried to build up ever since I have been
here.”

She
said there was a possibility that a master key which disappeared shortly before
she became superintendent was used in the escape.

Mrs.
West pleaded guilty to a second
degree murder charge after she had beaten her husband, T. Edward West, to death
with a hammer and table leg at their home near Painesville on Dec. 7, 1927. She
went to a bridge party in Cleveland
afterwards and was “the life of the party.”

The
letter which Mrs. West wrote to Mrs. Reilley in ink on yellow note paper
follows:

“Mrs.
Reilley .Dear:—

“I
wonder if you can ever forgive me for this — I am doing it for several reasons. Because I must have, one little
adventure in this dull life of mine — because I am so tortured with pain in
this body of mine that it drives me almost crazy—because I have lost, hope of
getting out as I would like to get out—it’s fear of these things that have finally
made, me do the thing that I have been fighting against, for years. — You’ve
been so wonderful to me, so understanding, so patient. — This thing isn’t easy
for me to do because I have a conscience and a tender heart. — I shall probably
always despise myself for it. — Do not blame the other girls. — I found out by
accident that they were going, and I asked them to take me. They didn’t want to
because of my health—but finally decided to, and promised to take care of me,
and .not subject me to anything immoral. That may be for them—but never for
cue, dear.

“If
this should in any way cause you trouble I shall come back Immediately, for I
love you, as I love my own mother. I only hope you can understand — oh, please
do.

“I
would be happy if you would let my mother and dad read this, and try in some
way to comfort them. I don’t know how to tell you just how I feel — I’m being
torn between two different ways — my desire not to hurt you, and my folks who I
love — and my desire to have just one little adventure before I get too old and
too dulled by pain ever to enjoy life — to tell you the honest truth I hope
someone catches us before we get out.

“This
is terrible — to be so utterly silly, but I cannot help it — darling, you have
been wonderful to me — and I realize that the others have done as much as they
could in here for my health. But I have not been without pam for so long now
that I’m at the breaking point — I’ve hid it as much as I could, after I
realized that nothing could be done for me.

“Please
don’t let them talk too awfully about me after this — I’m not bad — just
frightfully unlucky — in life.”

The
other fugitives are Virginia Brawdy, 19, Akron; Mary Ellen Richards, 23,
Cincinnati, and Florence Sheliner, 23, Gallipolis. Miss Helen Rahmel, night
matron in the building from which the four escaped, said she had tested the
doors of all cells Sunday night and had found them locked.

Mrs.
West might have had a chance for parole had she not escaped, Mrs. Reilley said.
In 1934, the parole board continued her case “until expiration of sentence,”
which meant life imprisonment. Last October, however, Mrs. Reilley asked the
board to reconsider her case and it had been taken under advisement.

FULL
TEXT (Article 4 of 5): Columbus, Ohio – Velma West, 53, who has been in the Marysville Reformatory for women since she
was 21, was denied freedom
Thursday by the, Ohio Pardon and Parole Commission. The board said It would
review her case again in 1964.

Mrs.
West was convicted of the second-degree murder of her husband, Thomas, 26, of Perry, Lakeco. She beat her
husband to death with a claw hammer after the two argued over going to a party

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

"Van Valkenburgh" is apparently the correct spelling. The execution took place in Fulton, New York.

***

FULL TEXT: The Fulton Co. Democrat contains an account of the execution of this wretched woman, from which it appears that she acknowledged haying poisoned two husbands. After stating the course pursued by the Governor in this case, the statement thus proceeds: The prisoner had, previous lo the time the Sheriff received the Governor's communication, refused to confess her guilt, and maintained herself with much stoical firmness; but on learning that there was no longer any hope for her, her fortitude beganin some measure to fail, and she began to feel more sensibly her awful situation, On Thursday, the 22d instant, two days previous to her execution she made a full confession of the crime for which she was to die, and acknowledged the justice of the lenience which was shortly to end her existence, in the presence of Judge Watson, J. W. Cady, late Dis. Attorney Sheriff Thompson, Rev. James Otterson, and Rev. David Eyster. In this confession she denied having poisoned her first husband, whom it had been reported she had also murdered. But on Friday morning, the 22d, as her end rapidly approached, she made an additional confession, admitting that she had given her first husband a dose of arsenic, which, although he did not die immediately, was ultimately the cause of his death.

We are informed by those who witnessed the execution, that the scene was awful. Notwithstanding she had expressed to others that she had a hope of forgiveness from her Maker, yet, when brought from her cell, her face showed a most haggard appearance. Despair was depicted upon her countenance! Alter she was brought to the gallows, a prayer was offered up by the Rev. Mr. Hitchcock. She then spoke a few words to those present, and said if there were an drunkards or transgressors present, they must take warning by her fate; and then commenced praying to God to have mercy upon her soul. The drop was then let fall, and as the rope straightened upon her neck and just as she raised from her feet, she gave a shriek and passed from time into eternity. Tints ended the life of a lewd and wretched woman, who had sent two husbands (perhaps unprepared) into another world!

Wikipedia (Article 2 of 2): Elizabeth van Valkenburgh (July 1799 - January
24, 1846) was an early American murderer who was hanged for poisoning her
husband. Elizabeth Van Valkenburgh was born in Bennington, Vermont. Her parents
died when she was around 5 years old and was sent to Cambridge, New York to
live, but had little education or religious upbringing.

~ First Marriage

She first married at the age of 20, moving with her husband,
with whom she had four children, to Pennsylvania. After living there for six
years, the family moved near to Johnstown, New York, where she remained for the
next 18 years. In 1833, her first husband died, which she initially stated was
due to dyspepsia and exposure. Later, she admitted that she had poisoned him by
adding arsenic to his rum, because she was “provoked” by his drinking in bars.
In an addendum to her confession to Van Valkenburgh’s murder, she noted that
her first husband had been able to go to work the following day after being
poisoned, although he suffered after effects until he died, and that she did
not intend to kill him.

~ Second Marriage and Murder

She married John Van Valkenburgh, with whom she had two more
children, in 1834.In her confession, she stated that he was an
alcoholic, that he “misused the children”, and that “we frequently quarrelled”
when he was drunk Her son had offered to buy “a place” for her and the other
children in the west, but John Van Valkenburgh opposed this.

She
stated in her confession that “John was in a frolic for several weeks, during
which time he never came home sober, nor provided anything for his family.” She
managed to purchase arsenic and poison his tea, although he recovered from the
first dose of poison.Several weeks later, she mixed another dose in
his brandy. So gruesome was his death, however, she said that “if the deed
could have been recalled, I would have done it with all my heart.”

She
ran away, hid in a barn, and broke her leg in a fall from the haymow. She was
captured, tried and convicted. She was sentenced to death by hanging. Many
people, including ten of the jurors, petitioned Governor Silas Wright for
clemency, but having studied the materials related to the crime, and despite
being moved by her gender and poverty, could find no new evidence to stop the
execution. She was executed on January 24, 1846. Because of her broken leg and
her obesity, Van Valkenburgh was hanged in an unusual way. She was carried to
the gallows in her rocking chair and was rocking away when the trap was sprung.

FULL TEXT: Medford, Otsego, N. Y., is horrified by the development of a poisoning case – or rather a series of poisoning cases—of an unusual character. Mrs. Elizabeth P. McCraney, the third wife of Mr. Mc. (who was also her second husband,) is accused of poisoning her husband's daughter, Huklah, a beautiful girl of 17, and now that this murder is out the people believe they shall trace no less than seven mysterious deaths to her agency, including her former husband. – She is about fifty years of age, a woman of unusually brilliant, not to say dashing appearance.

FULL TEXT: The old settlers of Wisconsin will clearly remember the sensation produced some forty years ago by a mysterious tragedy which took place at Lancaster, in Grant county, when five persons – Thomas P. Burnett, his wife, daughter, and two other residents of that village—met very singular deaths. It was the most singular tragedy ever known in the state because of the deep mystery that surrounded it, and of the death of each of the five persons mentioned.

A few days ago the Galena Gazette published a letter written in 1861, by the Hon. J. Allen Barber, of Lancaster, afterwards a member of congress from this state, in which many interesting facts were given regarding the murder. All of the five persons whose sudden deaths astounded the community died of arsenical poison. A Mrs. Elizabeth P. McCraney, a sister-in-law of Burnett, and an inmate of his house, was suspected of the murder, and was arrested, tried, but not convicted. There did not seem to be any doubt as to her guilt, but there was lacking evidence sufficient toconvict her and she was acquitted. At that time the people at Lancaster did not doubt the guilt of Mrs. McCraney; and some twelve years after the murder was committed, Mr. Barber wrote the letter which was published last week for the first time and which contains facts and circumstances which point directly to Mrs. McCraney as the murderer of the Burnett family and other two residents of Lancaster.

Before Mrs. McCraney became a resident of Wisconsin, she lived in New York. Her father came to Wisconsin sometime during the thirties, and was a well known preacher, and followed his calling for more than forty years in this state. After the murder of the Burnett family, it came to light that Mrs. McCraney had poisoned two husbands and two of her little children in Otsego county, New York, where she lived before removing to this state. The normal career of this woman was remarkable. She was a woman who had reasonably good training, but her heart seemed to be set on murder, and in the course fifteen years her victims counted nine.

FULL TEXT: A Mrs. Pleasant, of Fort Laramie, has sued a paper for saying that she has murdered three husbands, when the fact is she hasn't murdered but two, the third one getting away with a broken rib.

FULL TEXT: A FIENDISH WIFE.—St. Gall papers tell a strange story of a married couple, of the name of Gossau, who lately left the canton for New York, viá Havre. During the voyage the wife poisoned her husband, and tried to throw his body overboard. This led to her arrest, and the discovery of the crime. At New York she was handed over to the police, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. She then confessed to having also poisoned her first husband in St. Gall, her second husband being her accomplice.

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4):: Stafford Springs, Conn.., April
4 – Mrs. George Johnson was arrested here yesterday [Apr. 3, 1888] charged with
shooting her husband while he was asleep during the night. It is stated that
domestic trouble has existed between the two for some time, owing, it is said,
to Johnson paying attention to other women. The couple retired early on the
night of the tragedy. About midnight Johnson was awakened by a sudden shock,
suffering intense pain. His wife was not beside him, but his cries for
assistance brought her from the adjoining room, and also aroused some neighbors
who procured medical assistance. The doctors upon examination found that
Johnson had been shot, the bullet having entered just below the last rib. They
probed for the ball, but were unable to extricate it. Johnson is in a very
critical condition, and there is no hope for his recovery.

The authorities were notified, and Deputy Sheriff Fisk,
accompanied by an excited crowd of villagers, went to the house, where Mrs.
Johnson was arrested. She at first resisted all attempts to search her, but
finally a twenty-two calibre revolver was found tied securely to one of her
ankles. One chamber was empty. She accounted for the possession of the pistol
by saying that she had recently been pursued by an unknown man and that she had
obtained it to protect herself. She denied all knowledge of the shooting of her
husband. She was taken to jail and arraigned in court to-day.

FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): Hartford. Dec. 11. – One of the
most mysterious of the murder trials for which Connecticut has recently become
noted opened yesterday afternoon at Tolland, a little country court house town
about twenty miles from here.

Mrs. Martha Johnson, a tall, gaunt, haggard woman of 50, is
on trial for the murder of her husband, George E. Johnson, in April last at Stafford Springs.

The affair was most peculiar. Johnson retired early, and
awoke about 11 o’clock with severe pains in his back. He called his wife, who
had not yet retired, and sent for a doctor, who found a bullet wound on the
right side of the spine. Johnson did not previously know that he was shot, and
had heard no report of a pistol.

His wife was suspected, and when arrested and searched the
following day, a revolver with one barrel discharged was found in a flannel bag
strapped to her right leg. She claimed to have bought the weapon months before
as a protector when out at night. Johnson lingered in great pain until July,
when he died, and his wife, who had been at liberty under $1000 bonds, was
placed in Tolland jail. Last week she was arraigned and pleaded not guilty, and
the trial was postponed until yesterday.

Friends have raised $500 for her defense, the larger part
being contributed by Dwight Webster, foreman of the Underwood Belting company
at Tolland, who is her son by a previous husband, John Webster.

It is alleged that she was responsible for the death of
Webster by slow poisoning, and here are intimations that Johnson was a victim
of the same kind of treatment for weeks before she shot him.

The defense will be insanity. She is a woman of strong
passions, of a nagging dis position, and made Johnson’s life a burden to him by
her furious temper and insane jealousy, although he was a man advanced in years
and of good morals and highly respected in the community. She claims to be
wholly ignorant of the shooting. But itis understood that her temperament is such that her counsel will not
risk letting her go upon the witness stand in her own defense, which is
permitted under the Connecticut criminal law.

Ex-Governor Andrews, now of the superior court bench, is the
trial judge.

An average jury was secured, the defense exercising all its
rights to prevent men from getting into the box who would not be inclined to
give the insanity plea at least a fair consideration. The local feeling is so
strong, however, against Mrs. Johnson that counsel for the defense have good
reason to fear that they will go into the trial heavily handicapped. When the
jury was completed, an adjournment was taken until to-day.[“Mania Pleaded. - A Connecticut Woman On Trial
For Husband-Killing. - The Insanity Plea Made for Mrs. Martha Johnson. –Accused of Shooting Her Husband – A Former
Charge.” United Opinion (Bradford, Vt.), Dec. 5, 1888, p. 1]

***

EXCERPT (Article 3 of 4) (from very long article): Stafford
Springs, Conn., Dec. 9. – The trial of Mrs. George E. Johnson for the killing
of her husband is set down for to-morrow and the Judge of the Superior Court
says he will not postpone it on any account. It has excited the greatest in
Tolland County, which is not accustomed to murders, and this interest is
heightened by the promised production of testimony proving that the prisoner
was a confirmed user of poison, and that she not only gave her second husband,
Johnson, a good many doses of poison, but that she killed her first husband,
John Webster, with poison. The defense has promised to make out a case of
insanity, and take it all in all the trial promises to be very interesting.

[“Tolland’s Mystery. – What Sort of Woman Is Martha Johnson,
of Stafford, Conn.? – She Is Charged With Murder. – Her Two Husbands Died, and
It Is Said She Poisoned Both. – The Last Was Shot While Asleep. – Her Trial
Will Begin To-Day in Stafford Springs, Tolland County, Conn. – Her Counsel Will
Try To Prove Her Insane – Only One Hanging Has Taken Place in the County and
That Was Away Back in 1816 – Martha Sees a Gallows in the Stare – She
Apparently Has But One Friend in the World, Her Son.” The World (New York,
N.Y.), Dec. 10, 1888, p. 1]

***

FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): Rockville,
Conn.. Dec. 24. – Martha
Johnson, who was sentenced to State prison for life on Saturday, was taken this
after noon from Tolland jail to the State prison by Deputy Sheriff Fisk of
Stafford.

FULL
TEXT (Article 1 of 3): Mrs. Mary McKnight, who has been called a modern Borgia
because of her confession to the murder of her brother, his wife and baby, and
who is suspected of having caused the deaths of eight other persons by the
stealthy administration of strychnine during the past fifteen years, has lived
in Kalkaska, Mich., all her life, respected and supposedly sane. But for a
filing of a mortgage with the figures raised, alleged to have given her by her
brother, the crimes might never have been discovered. She first confessed to
one murder, then at other times to two others, and it is thought she will tell
of the killing of some of the other persons, including two of her former
husbands.

FULL
TEXT (Article 2 of 3): Kalkaskan, Mich., June 10. – Mrs. Mary McKnight, who is
in jail here charged with the murder of her own brother, John Murphy; Gertrude
Murphy, his young wife, and their three-months-old babe, has made a confession
as follows:

“The
baby woke up and cried while its mother was gone, and I mixed up a little
strychnine in a glass with some water and save a spoonful to the baby. I didn’t
mean to harm the little thing at all. I confessed all to the Lord this
afternoon, and I feel that he has forgiven me.

“When
Gertrude came home and found the baby dead she got awfully nervous. She came to
me and said: ‘Mary, can’t you give me something to quiet me; something that you
take yourself?’ I said that I would, and I really didn’t think that it would
hurt her if I gave her one of the capsules. She had spasms right after that,
and I suppose that It was the strychnine that killed her. I really didn’t mean
to hurt her.

“Then
John seemed to feel so badly about it, so broken up, that I often thought after
Gertie died that it would be better if he were to go, too. John was feeling bad
one night a couple of weeks after Gertrude died. He came to me and wanted
something to quiet him. I had two or three of the capsules on my dresser, and I
told him to go and get one of them.

“I
didn’t mean to hurt him, but I thought that it would sooth him, and then I
thought that. It would be for the best if he were to go, anyway. He helped
himself, I don’t know whether he took one or two. Then he went to bed, and by
and by he called me. Mother came, too, and he began to have those same spasms.
I suppose that the strychnine was working.”

The
whole of the confession was given voluntarily, and Mrs. McKnight signed it
after Prosecutor Smith had written it out.

~
Suspected of Killing Eight Others. ~

There have been eighteen deaths among Mrs. McKnight’s immediate associates or in her
own family in less than that number of years, and besides the three Whose
murder she has acknowledged, there are eight others who died under such
peculiar circumstances that she is strongly suspected of having poisoned. them
as well. Their names fellow:

James
Ambrose, Mrs. McKnight’s first husband, of Alpana, in 1887; Mrs. McKnight, the
first wife of James E.McKnight, died in July, 1887, at Alpana; Baby Teeple,
Mrs. McKnight’s niece, died two days later, in the same place apparently of
convulsions like that of the other victims: Eliza Chalker, Mrs. McKnight’s
niece, died in Grayling, Mich.,
May, 1892; Sarah Murphy, Mrs. McKnight’s sister, died in Grayling, November
1893, Ernest McKnight, Mrs. McKnight’s second husband, at Grayling, November
188?; Mrs. Curried [Curry] died Saginaw in 1893; Dorothy Jensen, in Grayling,
Good Friday, 1902; three Ambrose children. Mrs. McKnight’s children by her
first husband died shortly after birth; Jane Ambrose, another daughter, at
Monroe, Mich.; May Ambrose, another daughter, at Saginaw, Mich.; Mrs.
Schaneburger, a relative of marriage at Saginaw in 1896; William Murphy,
accidentally shot in November, 1902.

In
almost every one of these cases Mrs. McKnight had been nursing the person who
died and was such in close contact that it would have been an east matter for
her to have administered the poison, if that were really the cause of death.
The authorities at Grayling, Alpena and Saginaw are now working on the theory
that poison was administered in every case, and here possible the bodies will
be exhumed and the usual tests for strychnine applied. Even though a body may have been buried for five or ten
years, the teat used to detect strychnine poisoning be available provided the
body has not lain in wet or marshy ground.

~ Long Chain of
Fatalities. ~

Alpena
where Mrs. McKnight went to live with her first husband, James Ambrose, who
was in the painting and decorating business with Ernest McKnight. The two
families were intimate and occupied the same house. Ambrose was in ill health,
and is said to have had consumption which might account for the early death of
the first three children.

Jane
Ambrose, the eldest child, was seven years of age when she went to visit her
grandmother at Monroe. There she was taken ill suddenly and died. The nextto die was James Ambrose,
Mrs. McKnight’s husband; he was said to have died of consumption, but the
symptoms ware such as to puzzle the doctor in attendance. Ambrose seemed to too
in great agony and his limbs twitched convulsively.

A
fatality seemed to cling to the house, for Mrs. McKnight, the wife of her
husband’s partner. was next taken ill, and her sister, Mrs. GigTeeple, came to nurse her, bringing
with nor her husband and her baby, the child being left much in the care of the
widow. Mrs.
McKnight died, the symptoms being partial paralysis, a spasmodic twitching of
the limbs and convulsions. Next night the baby was taken sick and died the
following morning, the symptoms being the same as those of the mother.

Mrs.
Ambrose and her five-year-old daughter May, then went on a trip to visit some
friends at Saginaw, but before reaching there May was taken ill on the train
and go was the mother. They
were removed to a hospital, where the mother recovered, but the child died.
Left alone in the world Mrs. Ambrose returned to her sister, Mrs. Chalker,
until her marriage to McKnight should take place, which was some three weeks
later. She then went with him to live at Alpena, but latter they returned to
Grayling. She went one might in May, 1892, to Mr. Chalker’s for tea and while
they were at the table Mrs. Chalker’s daughter, Eliza, was taken suddenly ill
with partial paralysis, foaming at the mouth, convulsions and twitching of the
limbs and died in about four hours. The doctors attributed it to congestive
grip, although they were not satisfied altogether the temperature not being
what they expected.

The
symptoms were precisely the same as those of Miss Chalker, but the doctors
never thought of poison, although they were the same who had attended the
previous case. It was only when the woman was arrested a few days ago that
their attention was directed to
the possibility of poison having been used, and it immediately occurred to them
the symptoms were precisely those which strychnine would produce. The girl was
dead in four and a half hours, the spasmodic twitchings, being such that they
could not keep her in the bath of mustard and water.

The
next to die was Ernest McKnight, Mrs. McKnight’s husband. In November, 1898, he
went out to his farm, about three miles from Grayling, taking with him a lunch
that his wife had made up. He unhitched his horses, but did not unharness them.
After working for some hours he sat down arid ate his lunch and immediately
afterward he was taken with griping pains. He suffered untold agony and for a
day or two his body sometimes bending backward like a bow, his limbs twitching
convulsively and his throat partially paralyzed.

~ Probably a Second Dose. ~

On
Monday night he had recovered sufficiently to sit up in bed and smoke as he
talked with his neighbors about his strange experience and they left shortly
before midnight, expecting to see him out the next morning. In the morning he
was dead. Still Dr. Leighton did not suspect anything, although the symptoms
worried him considerably. It is his
opinion now that strychnine was administered and that McKnight had been given a
second dose on the Monday night. Three years ago Mrs. McKnight got word that a
friend, Mrs. Schnesburger, was ill, being worn out with nursing; she went to
Saginaw to help out and nurse the old woman, and the latter died in a few days,
Mrs. Curry, Mrs. Schnseburger’s daughter, Mrs. McKnight, went out for a drive
together. But two days later she was dead, too.

Mrs.
McKnight then returned to Grayling and went to visit Mrs. Jenson. Mrs. Jenson
was taken seriously ill and had to go to a hospital, leaving her house in
charge of Mrs. McKnight. On Good Friday Dorothy, the little daughter of Mrs.
Jenson was playing about
the house with other children.

Mrs.
McKnight told the woman in the house next door that Dorothy had exhausted
herself with the skipping rope and was seriously ill. A doctor was called, but
the girl was dead before he arrived, She, too, had the same convulsive
twitchings and the same foaming at the mouth.

[“Woman
Admits Three Murders, Suspected of 8. – Mrs. Mary McKnight Poisoned Her
Brother, His Wife and His Child, and Has Confessed.” The World (New York,
N.Y.), Jun. 11, 1903, p. 1]

***

“Serial killer Mary McKnight, who between 1887 and 1903
murdered between 12 and 18 people with strychnine poisoning, including her
whole family, just because she liked to go to funerals. Her crime spree
stretched from Alpena to Saginaw.” [Ellen Creager, “’Blood on the Mitten’
recalls Michigan true crime tales,” Detroit Free Press (Mi.), Sep. 17, 2016]

***

Mary McKnight's Victims:
11; period of 15 years (1887-1902)

John
Murphy, brother

Gertrude
Murphy, sister-in-law, wife of John

Ernest
McKnight, daughter, 3 months.

James
Ambrose, husband #?

husband
# 1, who died at Alpena in 1887.

Mrs.
McKnight, the wife of James E. McKnight, who was a partner of Ambrose.

Baby
Toople, Mrs. McKnight's niece.

Eliza
Chalker, niece, who died at Grayling in May, 1892.

Sarah
Murphy, sister, died at Graying in Feb. 1893.

Mrs.
Curry, who died in Saginaw in 1893.

Dorothy
Jensen, a child, who died in Grayling

Method:
strychnine capsules

Disposition:
Found guilty Dec. 11, 1903, sentenced to life

***

The McKnight case in context:

FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): Detroit, Mich. Dec. 9. – Modern
prototypes of Lucretia Borgia are held responsible for eight deaths from
poisoning which have occurred in Michigan within the past few days. One woman
is charged with the murder of a hired man, while a third has confused to
poisoning her husband.

Two other cases of poisoning, in both of which women are
implicated, are still under investigation.

The known places are:

Mrs. Mary McKnight of Kalkaska, charged with poisoner her
brother, his wife and their child.

Mrs. Caroline Collins of Owosso, charged with poisoning a
hired man. [Note: She was suspected of three other murders as well.]

Mrs. Katie Ludwick of Bronson, guilty of murdering her
husband, according to her own confession.

Mrs. Emma Stewart of Big Rapids, suspected of being
responsible for the death of her husband, who died of strychnine poisoning.

~ Wife Admits Giving Poison. ~

At Coldwater, Mrs. Katie Ludwick, whose husband died three
weeks after their marriage in Bronson township, was arrested last night and
brought to the county jail this morning, charged with murder. This afternoon,
in the presence of the Rev. Father Hewitt and jail officials she acknowledged
her guilt.

John Ludwick of Bronson township was married about three
weeks ago to Katie Bistry, aged 18. Both are Polish. She had seen him only four
times previous to their marriage. Katie seemed reluctant, but her parents urged
the marriage. After their marriage Mrs. Ludwick bought arsenic twice at
Bronson, stating they were bothered with rats.

Last Thursday, she says, she administered the poison and her
husband died. Arrangements had been made for the [missing phrase in original]
and the wife attended a wedding while the remains lay neglected in the house.

~ Autopsy Reveals Strychnine. ~

George Stewart, a farmer, living five miles east of Big
Rapids, age about 40 was taken suddenly ill and died in convulsions before a
doctor could reach him. Arrangements had been made for the funeral, when it was
determined to hold an investigation, it having been learned that Stewart’s wife
recently purchased some strychnine in the dead man’s stomach. Stewart and his
wife had been married sixteen years and had no children.